Thanks to a friend, I just came into possession of a nice rotary vane vac pump (1/2 hp, 7 cfm) which promply tipped over in the back of my rig on the way home, spilling most of the oil. I’m dying to start playing with this thing, but fresh oil is needed. My understanding is that Vac-pump oil is simply high grade mineral oil. Right? Should I make a special trip to grainger for the real deal or would grocery store mineral oil suffice?
Thanks
7/10
I’ve always just used 3-in-1 oil on mine, but the oil couldn’t spill out of mine. It has what looks like an oversized zerk grease fitting on the vane cover, and I just put in a few drops every few hours of operation (you can really hear the sound difference in the pump when the fresh oil hits). The excess gets blown out into a catch jar at the outlet, that’s the only place on my pump where it could spill out.
Thanks Shwuz,
My travels ended up taking me right past Grainger so I bought a quart of “vacuum pump oil”. 7 bucks a quart, so no big deal.
7/10
Be sure to vent it outside.
Vacuum pumps create an oil
mist that you don’t want
settling on things you intend
to bond or paint later on.
And like anything with oil,
it doesn’t hurt to change it
once in a while. You’ll get
better performance with clean
oil.
-Hein
Hein,
Thanks for the tips! Based on your warning, I’ll either vent into a baffle/filter setup or run a piece of tubing outside.
a stoked
7/10